Campaign sniping over Vietnam War grows more strident

By Seattle Times news services

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WASHINGTON — Anti-John Kerry veterans unveiled a new ad denouncing Kerry's 33-year-old stance against the Vietnam War, Kerry filed an official complaint against them, and Democrats aired an ad featuring a former Air Force chief lauding Kerry as ready to command.

So went yesterday's skirmish in the ongoing war over war ads.

The new ad by the Republican-backed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth depicts three former Vietnam POWs condemning Kerry's April 22, 1971, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where he described alleged U.S. atrocities and called for an end to the war.

"He betrayed us in the past. How could we be loyal to him now?" Ken Cordier, a retired Air Force colonel who was a POW for seven years, asks in the ad.

Although the ad makes it appear as if Kerry is recounting atrocities he witnessed, he in fact was reciting claims made by soldiers that year during an anti-war gathering in Detroit. "They had personally raped, cut off heads, cut off ears," he told senators.

Reflecting on those comments this year, Kerry said they were too harsh. "I think some of the language that I used was a language that reflected an anger. ... The words were honest, but on the other hand, they were a little bit over the top," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in April.

Kerry's opposition to the war and claims that U.S. troops had engaged in atrocities have reopened a split between veterans who salute his service as a skipper of a Navy Swift boat in Vietnam and those who object to his subsequent protests.

The Swift Boat Veterans this month launched an ad questioning circumstances under which Kerry won a Bronze Star, prompting a tough response from Kerry on Thursday in Boston. Kerry accused the group of being a front for the Bush camp and said, "If (President Bush) wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on!' "

The Kerry camp yesterday announced plans to file a legal complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming the Swift Boat Veterans coordinated with the Bush-Cheney campaign and Republican National Committee, a charge that, if true, would be a violation of federal law. The Kerry campaign cited news reports linking some financiers behind the veterans' group to Bush campaign officials.

The Kerry camp also distributed a brochure picked up by a volunteer at the Bush-Cheney campaign office in Gainesville, Fla., indicating a local rally this weekend was being sponsored by the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans. Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said the effort was not approved by Bush headquarters.
 
The Democratic National Committee also aired an ad yesterday featuring former Air Force chief of staff Merrill "Tony" McPeak, offering testimonials to Kerry. McPeak, a Lake Oswego, Ore., resident who endorsed Bush four years ago, later described the ad as positive. "I'm not highlighting the fact that Dick Cheney got five deferments or President Bush played dodgeball during Vietnam," McPeak said.

Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot went on CNN and said the Kerry campaign has come "unhinged," and that Kerry himself "looks wild-eyed." White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Kerry is "losing his cool." The Bush campaign used similar language in 2000 to portray rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as potentially too unstable to run the country.

David Wade, a Kerry spokesman, responded in kind: "Maybe if George Bush had seen combat up close his hired-gun mouthpiece wouldn't be so flip." Not to be outdone, Stephanie Cutter, another Kerry spokesman, said, "Mr. McClellan needs to understand that John Kerry is not the type of leader who will sit and read 'My Pet Goat' to a group of second-graders while America is under attack." Bush remained in a Florida classroom for several minutes on Sept. 11, 2001, after learning of the terrorist attack.

"If George Bush continues to smear (Kerry's) service, voters have a right to look at Bush's failure to serve out his time in the National Guard," Cutter added. Bush maintains he fulfilled his duties.

Compiled from Knight Ridder Newspapers, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press.